Water rights and wrongs

The case tests the federal government’s legal responsibility regarding tribal water rights as drought tightens water resources in the West.

What would it look like to interpret the treaties as tribes understood them?

Terry Tempest Williams argues for granting personhood rights to Great Salt Lake.

The nature rights movement keeps making inroads into establishment thinking — and people keep ignoring the threat.

In Montana, there are growing concerns about the risks to fish and other wildlife from contaminants that flow downstream from Teck Resources' Elk Valley coal mines.

Before Avi Kwa Ame became a national monument, there was the fight for Ward Valley.

A federal analysis predicts that accidents are likely to occur once a year on the segment from Kyune, Utah, to Grand Junction, Colorado, with the portion between Grand Junction and Denver experiencing one every two years.

Elected officials across the state are organizing in opposition to a plan to ship billions of gallons of Utah’s Uinta Basin waxy crude through Colorado.

Garfield County commissioners are bucking the Western Slope trend against the proposed Uinta Basin Railway, 88 miles of new track that would connect the eastern Utah oil fields to Gulf Coast refineries via the national railroad network running through Colorado.

The new rules make Utah the 19th state in the country to pass legislation with stiffer penalties for protesting at so-called critical infrastructure sites, which include oil and gas facilities, power plants, and railroads. The new laws proliferated in the aftermath of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2017.

Natural gas and chemicals may be seeping through compromised barriers in northeastern Colorado oil and gas wells, according to a federal study, but state regulators and other researchers caution that analysis may overstate the problem.

Oil and gas company Matador Production Co has agreed to pay $6.2 million after federal inspectors said they discovered pollutant leaks at nearly 20 drilling sites on portions of the Permian Basin in New Mexico.

Oil and gas activity significantly picked up in Laramie County about 10 years ago, and in the years since, it has moved into residential areas.

Three planned lease sales tentatively include a combined 392,834 federal acres in Wyoming.

After saying Peace River temblors were natural, the Alberta Energy Regulator blames Obsidian Energy, raising big questions.

One of the bills would dilute the voting power of cities on energy matters through political redistricting, the other would prevent cities from addressing climate change.

A resolution opposing the Lava Ridge wind energy proposal has been adopted by the Idaho Legislature, after a unanimous vote by the Senate on Tuesday.

Local communities want to electrify, but gas interests have other ideas.

The federal government and state of Montana plan to conduct an intensive aerial survey to better understand the underground composition of a swath of the southern Bitterroot Mountains recently identified by a mining company as the highest-quality deposit of rare-earth elements in the U.S.

A survey of residents to craft the town’s comprehensive plan prods Crested Butte council to adopt strict new building codes that prohibit natural gas in new buildings.

Fort Peck Reservation would play host to a hydrogen plant producing fuel for the trucking industry, as well as a carbon sequestration site and wind farm.

CarbonCapture Inc., the California-based direct air capture developer behind Sweetwater County's Project Bison, announced the deal with the tech giant last week.

The first-of-its-kind initiative by CarbonBuilt, Aircapture and Block-Lite aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from concrete production by 70 percent.

In 2022, generation from renewable sources—wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal—surpassed coal-fired generation in the electric power sector for the first time.

A total 878 bison have been killed by native hunters in what's been the deadliest season since tribal treaty rights to hunt bison were recognized by the state in 2005-06.

The Western wildlife experts testifying before Congress confirmed the recovery of grizzly bears and wolves, and cautioned against transferring control to states where legislators might disregard science-based management plans.

A Wyoming official testified this week that he supported using “whatever means is necessary” to obtain management authority over the Yellowstone area’s federally protected grizzly bears.

Future Wyoming grizzly bear hunts — a near certainty if federal authorities approve the state’s petition to again remove the animals’ Endangered Species Act protections — would likely target more than triple the number of bruins than previously proposed hunts, according to a state analysis.

A drive-through wildlife park in eastern Idaho was found to be violating federal and state regulations in the last year. Under a new state law, it’ll have less oversight.

A total of 258 animals were killed this season. That’s down from last year’s 273, which was below the highest on record of 329 taken in the 2020-21 season.

A dedicated compensation fund for ranchers and a specialty "Born to Be Wild" license plate are on the legislative table.

In a letter, tribe asks for broader recognition of sovereignty.

A man poached a bull elk and then left it to waste because he said he was scared there were wolves in the area, according to Oregon wildlife officials. He’ll spend 10 days in jail because of it.

The model of aggression and dominance has infected human society. But new research shows how wrong we got it.

Ongoing bear-human conflict and failing bear traps meant Colorado Parks and Wildlife needed a new approach. They knew just who to call.

Scientists recently conducted the first parkwide population survey of Canada lynx in Glacier, filling a critical data gap surrounding the elusive carnivore and pegging Glacier as a potential climate haven.

In a sign of the times in Montana, state lawmakers are grappling with a fresh question: Have programs advertising the Last Best Place to the rest of the country worked too well?

As Glacier National Park follows a nationwide shift toward an online model for advance campground reservations, new research raises concerns over equity and access in outdoor spaces.

Group maintains moratorium would make more housing available to local residents and lower costs.

Salt Lake City is zeroing in new rules for accessory dwellings units to help its housing shortage.

Local laws that limit the growth rate of cities like Boulder, Golden and Lakewood would be erased by a new proposal at the state legislature.

Mayors from several Colorado cities criticized Gov. Jared Polis’ sweeping land-use reform bill Thursday as state overreach, with some floating lawsuits to block what they describe as infringement on local control.

“Humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “Our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once.”

China’s global campaign to win friends and influence policy has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the world’s most powerful communist country.

Following revelations about the Environmental Protection Agency’s cozy relationship with a mining company in Butte, Montana, the EPA this week announced a series of steps meant to “increase transparency” and engagement with the local community.

Restoring populations of otters, wolves, whales, fish and other ecosystem-shaping creatures could capture an eye-popping 6.4 billion tons of CO2 annually.

As global warming threatens to put much of the ski industry out of business over the next several decades, resorts are beginning to embrace a role as climate activists.

The bipartisan Ski Hill Resources for Economic Development (SHRED) Act would enable national forests to retain part of the annual fees paid by ski areas within their boundaries, instead of having that money go into the general treasury.

Firefighters in Telluride and eastern San Miguel County will use artificial intelligence to detect wildfire smoke and give them faster warnings of the natural disasters.

A lawsuit over the use of pink fire retardant could reshape how the U.S. Forest Service battles wildfires as they grow larger and more destructive.

Hunters used a ladder to climb over private property in Wyoming. A trespass suit against them could transform public lands access in the West.

Gardeners who don’t know the right people or visit the right nursery might be out of luck when looking for their very own upright junipers, aspens, serviceberries, western sand cherries, Indian paintbrushes or yuccas.

Utah lawmakers tout attention paid to the nation’s largest saline lake as a success, even as advocates say only dramatic action can replenish a lake in danger of drying up within years.

The strangeness of a dam and power plant man-camp tourist town.

It’s time to drill holes in Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River and empty Lake Powell.

Take a typical Alaska cruise and see the damage in its wake. The evidence is clear: the industry needs an overhaul.

Only the extremely wealthy might survive the Apocalypse in today’s western Wyoming town.

Utah native and billionaire Matthew Prince and his wife Tatiana announced Tuesday morning they’re buying the Park Record from Ogden Newspapers.